President Lee meets with Bolivian President Morales

President Lee Myung-bak, the President of South Korea, was presented with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Award by Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, the Executive Secretary of the (CBD) ,and received CBD award at Cheong Wa Dae on August 24, 2010. CBD Award represents to personages who have significantly contributed to achieving a goal of the Convention on Biological Diversity as a major instrument for achieving a green economy and sustainable development.

The Convention of Biological Diversity said "President Lee showed the international leadership by leading ‘low carbon green growth’ policy and greatly contributed to enhancing international cooperation through inducing the agreement on the establishment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) at the 3rd intergovernmental meeting, which was held from June 7 to 11 in Busan, Korea." Moreover, CBD highly appreciated the fact that President Lee made efforts to change Seoul into an environmentally-friendly city

In my opinion, this news would bring a pleasure not only for Mr.Lee ,but also all the Korean people as Mr.Lee was awarded by CBD. I think Mr.Lee is one of the good President that the other Presidents should follow his policy because his policy is to develope country with friendly to the environment.


http://www.korea.net/news.do?mode=detail&thiscode=eng030001&guid=49368

Kim Dae Jung passes away

This is another tragic news about the former South Korean president and Nobel Peace Prize receipient, Kim Dae Jung had passed away at the age of 85. He had been under treatment for pneumonia since July 13, died of “heart failure caused by internal organ dysfunctions

Kim Dae Jung was the president from 1998 till 2003. He had done many things for South Korea especially the "Sunshine Policy" which was connectede the two Koreas' borders by roads and railways. He became a symbol of the South Korean struggle for democracy and the dream of reconciliation, and eventual reunification, with North Korea. Moreover, the Nobel Committee awarded him the Peace Prize in 2000, it was in recognition of his struggle as a pro-democracy campaigner as well as his vision in overcoming five decades of mistrust and hostility to engineer the Korean summit meeting. In addition, he was often praised by his Western supporters as the “Nelson Mandela" of Asia,” although Mr. Kim had a more checkered reputation among his own people.

I feel sad after I finished read this news. In my opinion, I think Mr. Kim is one of the greatest South Korea president because he brought peace to his country. So ,I hope that Thailand would have one president like Mr. Kim who would bring peace and happiness back to Thailand like we used to have in the past. Since Thailand today is so discordant with many shirt groups such as Red shirt, Yellow shirt and Colourful shirt.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/world/asia/19kim.html?_r=1&hp

South Korea's worst oil spill blackens west coast

South Korea hired more than 100 ships and thousands of troops to clean up the worst oil spill in its history, which has blackened beaches, coated birds in tar and cast a foul smell over a nature reserve. It is involve the area from 17km of the west coast to about 100km southwest of Seoul. This is threatening to become a major environmental disaster. Moreover, the oil is about 10cm deep , we cannot even see the sand underneath. And now the volunteers and government personnel have been cleaning up oil with buckets and absorbing cloth, treating birds covered in oil and scrubbing blackened rocks.The clean-up alone from that disaster cost around $2.5 billion while the total costs, including fines and settlement of claims, were an estimated $9.5 billion.

After I read this news, I wish it would not be happened in Thailand. First of all, it will definitely destroy the environment ,and also give the air pollution. Furthermore, Thai's government has to spend a lot of money to clean it and for the fines as well.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/south-koreas-worst-oil-spill-blackens-west-coast/2007/12/09/1197135270365.html

South Korea sets emissions target

South Korea said " it plans a 30 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020" By doing this the government decided to reduce the business projection from 813 million tons of emissions to approximately 569 million tons. The plan came during the Asia-Pacific leaders meeting in Copenhagen; as they are concerning about global warming.

South Korea was the 16th-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world according to the International Energy Agency. And if there are no actions are taken to reduce the greenhouse gas, it will increase by 37% in 2020.

I think not only South Korea is concerning about global warming ,but also other countries as well. So I think if every countries help to reduce the greenhouse gas , it will give a big benefit to everybody because they will not have to suffer from global warming effect anymore.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2009/11/17/South-Korea-sets-emissions-target/UPI-87801258504331/

Income growth hits record in Q2

When I read this news I wonder why nowadays South Korean has been develope better and better. Their economic grew up very fast ; it expanded 7.6 percent more than expect , and because the job market improving, and the effect of the economic recovery. Hence, it is affect Korean households's income rose very high in the second quarter. They earned 3.55 million won ($2,990) a month on average approximate 7.7 percent more. Disposable income also jumped 6.8 percent to 2.89 million won. Income increased for both the rich and the poor , and it is seemed to continue to grow up. The income is grew , and thehousehold spending also grew, the data showed, in reflection of improving consumer sentiment. As the result , it will reducing the income gap between the rich and the poor.

I hope that Thailand's economic would grow up very fast like South Korea so all the Thai people will have the better lives.



http://www.koreaherald.com/business/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100813000577

Stocks rebound on eased growth concerns

The stock and shares in most of the countries in Asia have been risen up including South Korea. The stocks in South Korea rose the most in a month on speculation recent declines were excessive given the outlook for the economy. It measure had the largest gain among the 93 global indexes tracked by Bloomberg. There is also a jump in exports spurred economic growth to a 7.2 percent annual pace last quarter.

This is the good news for South Korea as well as other countries that the stocks rose up because it shown their economic were getting better.

http://www.koreaherald.com/business/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100813000617

SGR-1 robots

The unmanned SGR-1 robots were unleashed in South Korea. It has reportedly deployed new high-tech robots equipped with machine guns and grenade launchers along its border with North Korea ; but it is part of trail program. It also has the capacity to target and kill intruders with built-in 5.5mm machine guns or 40mm grenade launchers;however,it cannot fire without permission from a remote human operator. Nevertheless South Korea is making an decision about whether to adopt the robots permanently.

Everything has two sides the SGR-1 as well , it has both advantage and disadvantage.It might safe many soilders'lives but at the same time it might killed many of the enemies ,so I think South Korea should not adopt it.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/7929727/south-korea-deploys-deadly-robot-in-dmz

South Korea Fighting Internet Addiction

Today the number of people addict to the Internet is gradually increasing ; South Korea is searching for ways to deal with the growing problem of Internet addiction.

Eo Gee-jun , president of the Korea Computer Life Institute, says that 26-percent of teenagers and 30-percent of adults are addicted to online video games. He estimated about two millions people that are considered as "Internet addicts" . Now the government with the game developers are blocking anyone under 18 years old from playing Internet games between the hours of 12am and 8am in order to decrease the number of internet addicition.

In my opinion,I think it is good that the South Korea government are considering about Internet addiction because it is one of the major problems that heppened in our society today ,and the number of Internet addiction are more and more. I think people should spend time doing other things apart from Internet such as exercise,chat with friends and etc.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1854477/south_korea_fighting_internet_addiction/

Plastic Surgery

Today the world has improved very fast,a plastic surgery is getting more and more accept from people. Many people think the plastic surgery is the normal thing to do unlike five to ten years ago, the plastic surgery sounds so scary,painful and dangerous.

Korea is one of the leading country for plastic surgery. From the research, Jang Dong-gun and Song Hye-kyo,the actors are the most popular models for plastic surgery in Korea. I think the plastic surgery become popular because everybody want to be good-looking to boost confidence and self-satisfaction. Some people do it in sake of get the better job or promotion to the higher rank. The most people would like to do are their eyes, follow by nose ,facial contours or jaw , skin and wrinkle , liposuction and dental braces respectively.

This Korea trend has been introduced to Thailand and made the great affect in Thai's people. Since nowadays more and more Thai's people especially teenager want to do the plastic surgery. In addition, there are the big number of increasing for people who do the plastic surgery.

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/08/05/2010080500997.html

Park Yong-ha commits suicide

This is the tragic news about Park Yong-ha, the Korea singer who had commits suicide. There are many question why he killed himself since he was quite successful in his career and he did not left any massege as a clue for his motive.

However, his close friends said "Two to three days before Park Yong-ha obviously stress with his work and told them that his work and life were too difficult" ,so the police think this is the motive of his suicide.

After I finished read this news I felt very sad because I think nowadays the world is too compettitive which make people so stress and commit suicides more and more especially the countries like Japan and Korea. Further infomation is , Korea is the world’s highest suicide rate. For every 100,000 Koreans, 21.5 commit suicide which is very high rate.


http://www.nt2099.com/J-ENT/news/asian-entertainment/korean-entertainment-news/fans-all-over-asia-mourn-the-death-of-actorsinger-park-yong-ha/

Hyundai Rotem Company revealed its first set of the new Korean high speed train, KTX-II. It made with independent Korean technology that is made from an aluminum alloy car body. The safety and reliability has also been increased. Korea has proudly become the fourth country in the world following Japan, France and Germany that has acquired the technology to manufacture and operate the 300km/h high speed train. The new KTX-II trains have been upgraded with newly installed convenience facilities to meet the needs of passengers. All of the seats are more spacious and rotatable. New facilities such as family compartments, handicap restrooms and snack bars are available. Also, more services such as wireless internet.

South Korea has been developed in many ways include in technology,unlike Thailand. Since now Thailand still do not even have any high speed train. Moreover, the Mrt also just arrived in Thailand recent year.

South Korea Unveils ‘Recharging Road’

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have created a new type of electric bus called the Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) , its powered by charging wirelessly through the ground using magnetic charging strips. It is also able to cut costs of electric vehicles to an estimated third of the cost of the current system. There are plans to test out a bus route (OLEV) in Seoul. I’m glad to see technology moving and if it is successful it will be a great because it is friendly to environment and cheaper.

I think this is the great improvement not only for South Korea but the world successful. Every country could follow this idea if every country do so, our world will surely decrease the global warming because less Co2 is release to the air , and it is also save the nature resources like fuel and oil.

Increase for higher education

South Korea's government continues its investment in higher education, where access rates are already among the highest in the world. The 2009 budget for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology was 41.581 trillion Korean won (US$0.037 trillion), up 8.2% from the previous year, and the budget for higher education grew by a 2.5% increase.

The New University for Regional Innovation project, with an investment of 245.2 billion won, is part of an effort to develop local economies outside of Seoul. A total of 548.5 billion won has been allocated to provide more university students with loan programmes.

The government initiated a higher education evaluation and accreditation system in January last year in a bid to reinforce the autonomy and accountability of higher education institutions and refurbish the sector with a quality assurance framework of international standards.

South Korea Teacher

South Korea actively raises the status of teaching as a profession by doing two things. First, it makes entry to teacher training very selective. Teachers are recruited from the top 5 percent of each high school graduate class. Second, teachers are paid generous starting salaries of 141 percent of GDP.

Making teacher training selective and paying teachers high starting salaries attracts the strongest candidates to the teaching profession, which is important because teacher quality significantly impacts student outcomes.

It’s a smart trade off because studies show that teacher quality has significantly more impact on student outcomes than class size. Dollar for dollar, it’s better to attract a small number of outstanding teachers with high starting salaries than to attract a large number of mediocre teachers with lower starting salaries—even if that means having a high student-teacher ratio.

South Korea’s high level of respect for teachers is an exemplar for other nations that want to improve student outcomes.

This is very good example that Thai's government should follow. If Thailand want to improve our country to be the fifth tiger of Asia,we have to start with education.

Countdown for Korea's F1

Formula One is coming to Korea for the first time in its 60-year history. Roughly about 90 days from now, the South Jeolla city of Yeongam will be host to the F1 Korea Grand Prix, where 12 teams will be competing in Round 17 of the 2010 season.

F1 circuit is approximately 1.853 million square meters and a track measures approximately 5.615 km at a cost of 340 million won which is including the grand stand, pit, paddock, control tower and team building media center.

First of all I choose this news because I like to watch F1 ,but I never have an opportunity to watch the real F1 racing. I'm hoping that if Korea's F1 finish Imight have a chance to go there and watch F1. Moreover,I think it's good for their economic as well because it will definitely attracts many foreigners who like F1 to come to Korea. And I think Thai's government should look back to our country and should think about doing something to improve our country like South Korea does.

Shin claims No. 1 world ranking

Now everybody would agree that South Korea has been developed very fast especially in entertainment, technology, sports and etc. For the sports we could see obviously that South Korea's football team is now one of the best football team in the world as we could see in world cup,not only football but for others sports ,too.

Shin Ji-yai from South Korea had become the new world women’s golf No.1on Sunday May 3rd at the Tres Marias Championship. The 22-year-old Shin carded an eight-under 208 on Saturday to win the CyberAgent Ladies Golf Tournament Tour in Chiba, Japan.

“I won’t be able to believe it until I see the official ranking announcement,” Shin said.
“If I become world No. 1 it would be another dream come true. It means a lot to me. But I know the position won’t last forever, so I will try my best not just to keep it but to move forward.”

I think Thialand 's government and the organization that is responsibility for sport should be more serious, in order to improve our Nation sport team in any kind of sport to lead to be one of the best in the world. Not just say but cannot really do it!

Half of Spaniards drop out of high school

Spain ranks third in high school dropout among 30 industrialised nations, reports new Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study. Half of all Spaniards between the ages of 25 and 64 have not completed secondary education and it is the third-highest proportion of high school dropouts among 30 industrialised nations after Portugal and Mexico.

Four out of 10 Spaniards aged 25 to 34 have a degree compared to an average of 33 percent in the OECD and 30 percent in the EU. However, obtaining a degree in Spain is no guarantee of a well-paying job, as the study finds that the difference in wages between university and high school graduates is among the smallest in the OECD.

Andalucía announces a trial on the use of e-text books

Digital books are set to arrive in classrooms in Andalucía next year. Certain selected schools and institutes have been chosen for the trial as part of the TIC 2.0 digital program. Students will be able to access text books as e-books via virtual platforms.

However the Junta de Andalucía is still unable to give hard numbers on the size of the trial, and neither has a timetable been issued indicating from when the digitalised books will be available.

There is an estimated costing of 45 million for the project which has already been attacked by local booksellers who say they will challenge it in the courts.

A sea of red welcomes World Cup Spain home

Madrid turned into a sea of red on Monday 12 July 2010 , as a lot of Spanish gathering together at the center if the city to welcome home their World Cup football champions. The plane which brought the team to Barajas Airport arrived at about 3pm and revea;ed Captain , Iker Casllas , holding the Champion Cup high followed by the rest of the team.

The team went to the Zarzuela Palace to see the King and the Queen , then went to see the Prime Minister , after that took the very slow-moving bus through the Gran via , the center of Madrid to reach the stage which had been set up for the celebration on the banks of the Manzanares river.

The King thanked the team for ‘making our dreams come true’, bringing the Spaniards together, and being an example of ‘sportsmanship, nobility, good play and teamwork’. The crowd were singing ‘Campeones’ and ‘Si Si, la Copa ya está aquí’.

Spain World Cup's Champion

For the first time in their history Spain had won the World Cup, beating the Netherlands 1-0 after extra time. ANDRES INIESTA became hero who scored the winning goal in extra time in World Cup Final victory over the Netherlands in Johannesburg, South Africa.
And for the Dutch and their fans it was a very disappointment.
There were a lot of yellow cards (nine for the Netherlands, five for Spain) a lot of missed chances, a couple of very good saves, one red card for Johnny Heitinga

The goal in the 116th minute came off a turnover by the Dutch defense that Fabregas controlled just outside the penalty area. Iniesta stayed on the right and sneaked in to grab the pass and put his shot to the far post. Stekelenburg barely brushed it with his fingertips as it soared into the net. Iniesta tore off his jersey after the goal and raced to the corner where he was mobbed by his teammates. Several Dutch players wiped away tears as they received their medals as runners-up

I think this is not a very good match a lot of cheating and beating each other during the game. And for Netherlands it is a great disappointment since they won every games in South Africa before the bitter ending lost to Spain and missed the World Cup for the third time.